sign in sign up
<<
Home , Marco Polo

RESOURCES ESSAYS

Debunking the Myth To begin with, the legendary wealth of the By Laxman D. Satya Polo family from was a myth.

An Essay Review of Frances Wood’s Book In fact, the Polos were small-time merchants who did not make any mark Did on the city of Venice. Marco Polo’s claim of being associated with the family GoBOULDER , toCOLORADO ? WESTVIEW PRESS, 1996 of rich traders was dubious and suspect. 154 PAGES

Polos were small-time mer- ing an itinerary of the journey. chants who did not make any His description of the cities, dis- mark on the city of Venice. tances, and directions are also Marco Polo’s claim of being often inaccurate. His book con- associated with the family of tains remarkably few references rich traders was dubious and to himself or his family and suspect. Little is known of reads more like a geographical Marco Polo’s ancestry beyond or historical work rather than a the generation of his father and personal account of things seen. uncles. The places which Polo describes Polo claimed to have lived in do not fall in a logical sequence Qublai ’s court (1260–94 but are placed haphazardly in “a C.E.) as a guest for seventeen rough geographical grouping” years and also to have been (p. 37). commissioned by the Khan to Wood finds a lot of false travel all over China before information in the texts of being appointed as the Governor Polo’s Description of the World. of the City of . But The book is not written in first there is “absolutely no record of person and reads as if dictated Marco Polo in the Yangzhou by Polo to a ghostwriter. Polo’s gazetteers” (p. 15) of the period. book is supposed to have been Polo’s credentials are not cor- written between 1295 and 1300 roborated with historical docu- C.E. when he was in prison in ments. His claim of being a . It is supposed to have messenger of Khan to the been dictated by Polo to a fel- Roman Catholic Pope also is low prisoner by the name of dubious. There is no documen- Rustichello whose identity is tary reference, either in Chinese also dubious. The original ver- rances Wood has pro- sources or Papal archives, to the sion of the Description has been duced this fascinating fact that anyone by the name of lost to history. What survives is F book which basically Marco Polo ever acted as an the later version to which many debunks the myth surrounding intermediary between the two. new things were added to make Marco Polo and his Description Wood points to serious dis- the narrative more interesting. of the World. Providing more crepancies in Marco Polo’s This process has led to the loss than twenty pages of documen- book, Description of the World, of the document’s historical tary evidence in the form of suggesting that Polo never actu- accuracy in addition to the notes and bibliography, Wood ally went to the places described authenticity of its author and the argues that Marco Polo was the in his book. When closely scru- ghostwriter. Polo’s book there- biggest fraud in world history tinized, it is not “possible to fol- fore is only an inaccurate geo- and that he never went to China. low Marco Polo step by step graphical description rather than To begin with, the legendary beyond Persia” (p.29). Polo’s a travelogue of the time. wealth of the Polo family from book moves back and forth in A linguistic analysis of Venice was a myth. In fact, the time and space without provid- Polo’s book suggests that the

48 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 4, Number 3 Winter 1999 RESOURCES ESSAYS

Unless Polo was not interested in food at all, work may have been written by cial documents, domestic letters a series of ghostwriters, “each and books were written on how could he have failed to register a bringing his own favorite verbal paper. It is rather puzzling that endings to the task” (p. 50). The Polo did not show any interest comparison of Italian and ravioli with language and the place-names in either the Chinese or Mongo- Chinese noodles and dumplings? used by Polo raise many doubts lian writing system even though of accuracy. Polo’s failure to he claims to have served in accurately note Chinese and imperial bureaucracy. Wood Mongol place-names despite his even suspects that Polo had no since the time of the Han seventeen-year sojourn has cast knowledge of these two lan- dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). many puzzling doubts. He has guages. Many different varieties of also failed to record many sig- The widespread use of were grown and sold all over nificant articles and commodi- woodblock printing in China China. Polo claims to have ties of popular use. was unknown in Europe and visited Longjing in The most famous item in was not even mentioned by Polo province, Wulong in Fujian China during the thirteenth cen- in his Description. Polo claims province, and several places in tury was . Wood to have lived in Fujian. Along- province which were observed that Polo was unable side porcelain manufacturing, full of teahouses specializing in to provide a convincing descrip- Fujian was the center of China’s prepared with local spring tion of this commodity from book production business. Both water. Polo totally fails to China. Polo not only fails to these important items somehow mention these very noticeable locate the origin of porcelain in do not figure in Polo’s descrip- teahouses. Wood points out that the Fujian province but also tion of the Fujian province. It Polo’s claim of being well- sites its production in the myste- would be hard for any foreigner connected with the imperial rious town of Tingui (p. 65) to be living in Fujian and not bureaucracy and government is which does not exist. make note of the printed books false because he would certainly Paper money was one of the and porcelain so widely sold in have been entertained in the tea- greatest inventions of the Song its local markets. houses, “for the Chinese did not (960–1279 C.E.) and Yuan Tea was another item com- entertain at home” (p. 71). How (1279–1368 C.E.) China. Paper monly consumed, displayed and could Marco Polo have missed had been in use in China for sold in all the markets of China street-side teahouses unless he thousands of years before including Hangzhou. Tea had actually never went there? It is Marco Polo’s arrival. Most offi- been in popular use in China therefore “difficult to imagine a

49 RESOURCES ESSAYS

Marco Polo claims to have taken the land route to China temples alongside fertile rice via the going through Central Asia. If he had really taken fields sprawling in all direc- tions. As a center of silk produc- that route, he could not have missed passing through tion, Suzhou was “the favored the Great Wall. But Polo’s Description of the World fails to record place of residence for retired government officials and schol- the . ars” who lived in the prettiest of houses (p. 89). Polo not only does not mention anything sojourn of seventeen years in important symbols of Chinese about Suzhou’s beauty, but China without noticing the pop- culture like the use of chop- instead states that it was a mar- ularity of the drink” (p. 72). sticks and cormorant fishing in ket for ginger and rhubarb had been a the rivers near Guilin are also grown in the nearby mountains. popular practice among the not mentioned by Polo. These In reality, though, Suzhou lies in upper classes during the Song lapses are significant consider- the flat, wet delta dynasty (960–1279 C.E.). The ing the love of food and drink region with no mountains near- Mongols never adopted this commonly found in China and by. Far from being the market practice. Marco Polo’s associa- Italy. Unless Polo was not inter- center, Suzhou had never been tion with the Mongol and Chi- ested in food at all, how could known either for ginger or nese ruling class would have he have failed to register a com- rhubarb, suggesting that Marco certainly brought him face-to- parison of Italian pasta and ravi- Polo had never been to Suzhou. face with this practice. As a oli with Chinese noodles and The biggest of the monu- Christian he would have defi- dumplings? mental structures which no visi- nitely noticed it. But Polo again Ice cream had been in China tor would miss recording since fails to record foot binding in since the Tang dynasty Han times was the Great Wall the China of his times. Other (618–907 C.E.) and antedated of China. More a symbol than a Marco Polo by more than 300 physical barrier, the Wall had years. The widespread belief in one of the most spectacular run- Europe that Marco Polo was the ways for providing communica- first to bring ice cream from tion lines and shelter for border China and introduce it in guards and the garrison. Marco Europe is a myth created in the Polo claims to have taken the nineteenth century, according to land route to China via the Silk Wood. Polo never mentions Road going through Central having seen or eaten ice cream Asia. If he had really taken that in China. Furthermore, it was route, he could not have missed not Polo but the Arabs who first passing through the Great Wall. brought ice cream from China But Polo’s Description of the and introduced it in Europe in World fails to record the Great the thirteenth century. Wall of China. Wood presents Many monumental struc- this as the most glaring example tures described by Polo are also of Marco Polo’s falsification of full of inaccuracies. For exam- history—claiming to be in ple, the bridge in which China without having visited it. Marco Polo claims to have seen Polo’s claim that he, his situated sixteen kilometers to father, and his uncle were the the west never had more than first Europeans ever seen by eleven to thirteen arches in its Qubilai Khan was also mislead- history. Polo records having ing. Mongols had a long tradi- seen this bridge and counted its tion of association with out- arches to be twenty-four in siders, including Europeans. number. Similarly, Suzhou in This fact is very well docu- Jiangzu province was one of the mented. Being a pastoral most beautiful cities in all of people, they acquired their China. It was full of elegant weapons and metal utensils houses, gardens, bridges and from outsiders. In order to

50 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 4, Number 3 Winter 1999 RESOURCES ESSAYS

The second-hand nature of Polo’s book and a lack of coherent strengthen their hold over China, the Mongols during the itinerary suggests that Polo told fantastic tales to Rustichello, Yuan period utilized the ser- vices of people from all over his ghostwriter, to pass time in the dungeon between 1295–1307 C.E. the world. Korean boat- Marco Polo’s name is also absent from the massive documentation builders, Persian siege engi- neers, medical doctors from available on the Mongol period of Chinese history. , writers and calligraphers from , Arab civil servants and merchants, and Turkish able on the Mongol period of fraud in world history, and his translators and military com- Chinese history. Therefore, book can be clearly seen as a manders were just a few of the Wood concludes, Marco Polo case of concocted historical many who served the Khan. never went to China. Instead, document. Wood dismisses Polo’s he relied on Persian and Arabic Frances Wood’s book is an claim of having provided the guidebooks as his major source excellent teaching tool. The stu- Mongol army with mangonels material to narrate his concoc- dents just loved it. I had an (stone-hurling machines) and ted stories and tales. “Reliance entire class period of seventy- huge catapults for the siege of on other people’s work to fill five minutes devoted to dis- the Xiangyang, the last strong- out the Description of the cussing this book. The students hold of the Song dynasty in World might account for some also wrote excellent reviews of 1273. The siege machines were of the most glaring omissions,” the book. It is a good, colorful actually brought by Persian mil- in Polo’s narrative, suggests and analytical work written from itary engineers much before Wood. a non-Eurocentric perspective. It Polo’s arrival in China. In fact, China aside, Marco Polo did tears down the myth and reveals the siege of Xiangyang was not see even the Mongol capital the real identity of Marco Polo. broken a full year before the of Karakorum. Worse still, he As an eye-opener, this book pro- arrival of Polo in China. There- actually did not go beyond Per- vides an excellent learning fore, Marco Polo’s claim of sia, yet a major part of the book opportunity to students. The witnessing the siege of is a description of China. book also fits in well as a sup- Xiangyang was completely Wood’s book suggests that plementary reading for both sec- false. He was never there, family stories and familiarity tions of world history and could writes Wood, and his informa- with the and beyond be used as a teaching tool in the tion is erroneous and unreliable. could have provided Marco basic course. Furthermore, Polo was neither a with the required material for Even though this is a history siege engineer nor the first his book. Polo himself never book, it nevertheless deals European to meet the Mongol traveled beyond the family’s extensively with China’s rich Khan. His Description is thus outposts on the and tradition and culture. The book “filled with inaccuracies and . In that Marco is short (only 154 pages of discrepancies” (p. 111). Polo was like Herodotus (484 text) and very easy to read. It is Wood suggests that a B.C.E. to 425 B.C.E.) “who did available in paperback and detailed inventory of Marco not travel to all the places he affordable. I used it with great Polo’s belongings at the time of described and who mixed facts success and would recommend his death (1324 C.E.) bears little with fantastic tales” (p. 150). it to others. n connection to China. A detailed Wood argues that far from scrutiny of Polo’s book turns being an original eyewitness out to be neither materialistic account, Polo’s book was actu- LAXMAN D. SATYA is an Associ- nor mercantile, but religious in ally based on second-hand ate Professor in the Department nature. The second-hand nature information and knowledge. of History at Lock Haven University of Polo’s book and a lack of If Marco Polo was not in in Pennsylvania. He teaches Asian coherent itinerary suggests that China, then where was he and World History. His area of interest is agrarian and environ- Polo told fantastic tales to Rus- between 1271 and 1295 C.E.? mental history of South Asia. tichello, his ghostwriter, to pass There is no evidence, other than time in the dungeon between the Description of the World, to 1295–1307 C.E. Marco Polo’s suggest that he was in China, so name is also absent from the according to Wood, it turns out massive documentation avail- that Marco Polo was the biggest

51